Holdsworth ELAN bike - any info much appreciated!
 

I have recently been handed down a Holdsworth ELAN bike, the thing is I dont know much at all about bikes other than riding them and would be really interested to know more about it and if its worth spending the time doing it up a bit. Its ridable at the moment but with a bit of a warped wheel, breaks/gears need adjusting.

Holdsworth ELAN model
Manufactured by TI Reynolds
Weinmann breaks
Campagnolo gear levers
Sun tour cyclone gears
its also got a pattern and then GB embossed in the handlebar frame.

If anyone can shed any more light on it then that would be great - I really have no idea about its age or anything. Feels really light and well built though.

Cheers, Tom

Holdsworth was a worthy name and manufactured good bicycles. I have owned several Holdsworth "Equip" models and liked every one of them.

Your bicycle has collectible value and will offer a great ride, once built up properly. And do take the time to tune the bike up well. A road bicycle must be well maintained and tuned to impart a quality ride. Wobbling wheels, slow shifts and brakes that do not brake are not acceptable if ride quality is the goal.

Since you are new to this endeavor, I invite you to visit a website designed for people who are new to the notion of fixing up and riding a vintage road bicycle. The site is MY "TEN SPEEDS" and will take some doing to wade through. Pay attention to Bicycle Basics if you choose to investigate.

Cheers for that - annoyingly I have just measured the frame size and it seems to be about 4-6cm smaller than whats recommended for my size on a few websites - do you know how important this sort of thing is? I would want to do quite a bit of riding on it so not sure if to look round for another or just plough on with this one....

This might help. How to determine if the bike will fit you...

Hope this is a help and, good fit is where a good ride quality starts. If the bike does not fit well, it will not offer optimal ride quality or experience. My opinion, of course.

It looks to be a beautiful bike with a little bit of elbow grease! Is that a reflection, or is there a pretty sizable dent in the top tube?

That's a mid range bike, but VERY cool. Definitely worth fixing up. More/better photos would be helpful, but it looks like it's around a 54 cm bike? Are you in the range of 5'7" - 5'8"? If not, the bike might be too small for you.

This chart might help.

http://www.ebicycles.com/custom/cont...road-bikes.pdf

Also, is that a dent in the top tube? Dents in the top tube aren't necessarily deadly, but you might need to have the alignment checked.

Good luck!

yes - unfortunately that is the one bit of damage to the frame - other than that its all pretty good with only some rust specks and fading paint.....

cheers for that link, some handy info there...

yes biblo bob - its pretty much 54cm exactly. Unfortunately im 5'11'' which is a shame because ive had a quick go on it and it feals nice - also build quality seems much better than any newer bike i would be able to afford...

that is too bad, even being a die hard Bianchi geekette we had two Holdsworths at a shop I worked in. I really liked them but alas they were just too small.

NOW here comes the fun part about BF. I bet if we new where you lived there might be a BFr willing to help you clean and tune that bike so you can sell or trade it for one that fits.

your spot on about the quality! I was in the shop yesterday and the only bikes that draw my attention are the steel ones. and frankly I like my '86-'90 "Nouvo Classics" much better.

PS welcome to the forums. we are happy to help in any way we can.

You might try keeping it with a long, setback seatpost and a long stem. A lot of racers these days use frames that are very small compared to what used to be thought of as appropriate. A 54cm for a 5'11 person is not unusual at all these days.

BTW: I have a Holdsworth and think that they are very special.